The invention relates generally to an appliance, and more specifically, to a portable appliance working together with a host via a user interface. The invention relates further to a method for operating a portable appliance, and a computer program product.
Increased mobility of users provoke an increased mobility of data. Users want to have access to their data and their applications from any place they work, or they want and need access to their private and personal data. One possible solution for these requirements is to store the data on a central server and make application functionality available using web interfaces. The scenario is often denoted as cloud computing. The user only needs access to a network (i.e. the Internet) and a fully equipped end-point device, like a PC, a tablet computer, a smart phone, and the like. However, the endpoint device needs the complete set of user interface devices, like a screen, a keyboard, a pointing device, voice input/output, and so on.
On the other side, the advance in storage technology has led to mobile storage, very often in the form of Universal Serial Bus (USB) sticks, with large amounts of non-volatile memory. Users may carry these USB sticks around, having permanent access to their data as long as a host computer is available for input/output purposes and also, potentially, for providing the required applications. However, in such a scenario, application licensing is bound to the host device. If an application may not be available on the host computer, the data on the USB stick may not be accessible. On the other side, a proper license management and access to encrypted data has been addressed by special USB key devices. In such a scenario, a decryption key, in some instances also encryption keys, is/are stored in a non-volatile way in the memory of a USB device. In some cases, these keys may be stored in an un-erasable way, for example in a Read Only Memory (ROM).